An oversight, and deliberation upon the holy prophet JonahAn ouersight, and deliberacion vpon the holy prophete Ionas

And the people of Nineveh believed God, & proclaimed fasting, and arrayed them selves in sack clothe, as well the great as the small of them.

And the people of Niniue beleued God, & preclaymed fastynge, and arayed them selues in sacke clothe, as well the greate as the small of them.

Out of this text is first to be noted how that the Ninevites ⟨p. cxiiii⟩resisted not the preaching of Jonah, when they had yet if they would have excused their evil, many refuges & pretexts. There obedience to the word of god condemneth both the Jews & us of obstinacy, & malice. i. They might have pretended this Jonah is but one man, therefore not to be credited. ii. He is a stranger & speaketh it of hatred unto us, & of affection towards his own country .iii. He is of a contrary religion to ours, & would deceive as from our fathers faith. iiii. He is no king but a man that seemeth to have little wit and less experience. v. He is one contemned of his own country men and can not be heard of them, and should we credit his words? ⟨image 123⟩vi. He is a naughty liver an• one that God hateth and hath punished, and should we pass of his sayings? But they remembered their own faults, at the preaching of one day they amended, they never looked for miracle: They pretended not the antiquity and ancientness of their city, that had stood almost from the time of the flood Gen. x. They that heard him, never desired their amendment, until such time as the king, the priests and the other elders of the City, had agreed whether Jonah doctrine were true or not. Of this facility & quickness of belief in the Ninevites, we may see that sooner believeth the very infidels the word of god, then such as beareth ⟨p. cxv⟩the name of God, and be brought up in superstition. And that I think were easy to be seen, if experience should be taken to preach at Babylon or Constantinople, he should rather convert those cities, then Rome. Farther their promptness condemneth our obstinacy and hardness of heart, that daily hear the word of god preached, and yet nothing the better, nor nearer to salvation. It followeth what the Ninevites do when they be converted.